Allison Babka

Profile: I am Error.
I hail from around the Steel City and now live in the Gateway City. I'm one of those "damn loft-living, city-rat urbanites" that the country folk like to decry.
My superpower is my sense of smell; no, I'm not making this up.
Things I love: Sammy Cat, Star Wars, Joss Whedon, Marvel, Nintendo, Pez, FourSquare, concerts, baseball, public transit, pierogies, cheese, cereal and candy.
Things I hate: swallowing pills, cherry anything, Windows, meat, people with bad grammar, the gym, things that stink, that awful show with Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, pink baseball jerseys and X-Men shirts that only come in boy sizes.
Follow Allison on Twitter.

Author Archive

Unless you’ve been in a coma recently (rimshot), you’re likely aware that the first episode of AMC’s highly anticipated TV show, “The Walking Dead” leaked online earlier this week. The drama, based upon Robert Kirkman’s wildly popular comics about a small band of humans’ survival tactics against a nationwide zombie epidemic, was scheduled to debut this Sunday on Halloween. However, at this point, half the interwebz already has downloaded it. Us, included.

Death affects us in different ways. Some of us cry. Some of us isolate ourselves. Some of us turn into raging psycho hosebeasts who throw things against the wall. No matter how you grieve, you’ll need to get out your death shrouds today. Sony has killed the cassette Walkman.

I know, I know. Some of you readers don’t even remember a time when music wasn’t on an iPod or cell phone. But those of us aged 25+ counted on the Walkman to entertain us during those loooooong drives to Myrtle Beach with our parents, or to share tunes with our best friends (TWO headphone jacks, bitches!), or to up our cool factor as we bobbed our heads to the music while passing the black-clad rebels who were smoking behind the school.

But just as video killed the radio star, digital music players have all but killed mobile cassette players. Mobile CD players (which I still see daily on the city bus) surely aren’t far behind.

So as Japan and the world buys up the final batch of official Walkmen this year, let’s take a moment to remember our readers’ finest moments in Walkman history. Did you share a jack (um, headphone jack, sickos) with your 10th-grade crush? Did you wear out your cassette copy of “Please, Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em?” Let us know in the comments, or tell us on Twitter with the hashtag #WalkmanNB.

The stores have decided that it’s already HalloweenGivingNewYearMastime, which means that it’s time to start thinking about gifts. And a new book of art from Drew Struzan is going straight on my Amazon wishlist.

“The Art of Drew Struzan,” released in September, features art from the man behind posters for some of our most beloved sci-fi and nerd movies — including Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Goonies and Blade Runner.

Io9 recently reviewed the book, giving it a thumbs up and saying it’s chock-full of anecdotes from Struzan’s work with studios and producers, as well as little-seen promotional imagery.

For those keeping score, Struzan has worked on more than just movie posters. He also is noted for his work on covers for Star Wars novels and pop music record albums, as well as (oddly) plates from the Franklin Mint that depict the late Princess Diana of Wales.

Ready to see Marvel in a new light? The upcoming “Iron Man” anime series comes to U.S. channels next year, but it’s already airing in Japan now. Io9 has the intro and outro, as well as the scoop on the full first episode.

From Io9’s write-up, it sounds like Tony Stark will be battling some hulking Zodiac monster machines. But are they random astrological mecha-demons, or are they actually part of the second Zodiac? Being Marvel, my money’s of course on option two, but who knows?

Io9 also says that in Marvel’s first foray into anime, Tony Stark skews more toward Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal from the films instead of a straight-up take from the comics. As a RDJ fan (and not just because he’s hot in that smarmy way), I’m perfectly cool with this.

What do you think? Disappointed by this news, or stoked for the series?

In the latest “Does this really need to happen?” news installment, the 1960s sitcom “The Munsters” will be remade for the modern era. Cue the fire blast from Spot the dragon and the eye rolling from moi.

Don’t burn me at the stake just yet – I’m not actually hating on “The Munsters.” The scripts were kitschy, the sets were detailed and gorgeous, and the Herman Munster and the other characters had way more depth than that other creepy family down the road. I’m just tired of series, toys and movies getting reboot after reboot. Knock it off, Hollywood!

But who knows? Maybe this Munsters-spawn will work. It’s been done before to questionable success in the 1980s, but maybe this Bryan Fuller producer guy can make people care about haunted houses and spooky families again. I guess his track record is pretty solid, if you count “Dead Like Me,”“Wonderfalls” and “Pushing Daisies” as solid.

*grumble*

Oh, who am I kidding? I love all of those shows, so Fuller will work some mojo, and I’ll probably end up eating Fruity Pebbles in front of the “New-New Munsters Today In Pieholeland” every week.

Back in our parents’ day, there was a song called “A Town Without Pity.” It was a decent song, but I kept wondering why someone WOULDN’T want pity? Having pity means that Mr. T is around, with his pitying every fool he meets! So in honor of his “jibbah jabbah,” enjoy these 11… no, 12… no, 13 clips from Mr. T’s television appearances.

Oh, Ryan Reynolds. You know you’re the only one who can play Deadpool, the only one who can who can get the Merc’s acid tongue right, the only one whose muscles can glisten with sweat in that oh-so-special way… what was I saying? Oh! Deadpool! Right! So why is there talk that Reynolds might say goodbye to Marvel’s fourth-wall-breaking character?

In an recent interview, Io9 fires a few questions at Reynolds about his upcoming projects, including the Deadpool movie(s). Reynolds shares that Deadpool and the undead cop flick R.I.P.D. (“Rest In Peace Department,” based on the comic book) may be filmed around the same time and that he’s unlikely to be in both, especially because of his potential involvement with Green Lantern 2.

Because it’s such a crapshoot, this industry. Everything’s so fickle and so contingent on so many factors, aside from just an actor. And because it has an actor, and because these films have interested directors, it’s obviously likely that they’ll both get made. But I think it would be more likely that only one of them gets made with me. – Ryan Reynolds to Io9

Which movie do you prefer Reynolds takes on – Deadpool or R.I.P.D.? After the X-Men Origins: Wolverine debacle, can you picture anyone else besides Reynolds playing – nay, bettering – Wade Wilson?

Reynolds shows up next in Buried. Check out Reynolds’ potential upcoming projects on IMDB.

When you go hunting, you sometimes come back empty handed. But nerdy ridiculousness is hiding out there, just waiting to be photographed and turned into a famous Photoshop contest entry on Fark. But who would have thought that wacky nerd products existed in small towns in Indiana or Ohio?

“These are not the posters you’re looking for…” But they are! Check out these minimalist poster interpretations of the original Star Wars flicks. Artist Andy Helms really captured the anticipation of battle in these prints for A New

Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Unfortunately these prints are sold out, but check out the art below and tell us what you think!

Sometimes we nerds have to consume more than Coke and Taco Bell as we save the world from strangely electromagnetic villains and mean orcs. So what do we do to get the power-up? We bake. Cupcakes, no less.

justJENNrecipes.com has posted pics and a how-to for the cupcakes she created to show off her stationery at a comic book shop. Naturally, Jenn wanted to go with a superhero theme, so she used fondant icing to create cupcakes bearing Phoenix, Captain America and Superman crests.

It seems cupcakes are spreading wider than syphilis these days, as the dear boyfriend and I even got into the act over the weekend. Our cupcakes were messier than Jenn’s and we didn’t use fondant, but gosh golly, we loved our 1upcakes just the same:

Have you baked something as a testament to your Mario Kart skills? Decorated cookies to look like the early 20th century weapons found in Red Dead Redemption? Tweet your pics to @nerdbastards with the hashtag #NBcakes, and we may feature them in a future post about sweet edible nerd art!

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A news and entertainment blog for nerd pop culture. We are vulgar, debaucherous, and funny bastards that pilfer the internet (or interwebz, if you like) for the news you need so that you don't have to. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll often shake your fist in an angry fury but your time here is worth the price of admission (which is free for those of you not paying attention)